


Mix-up

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Gen, The Great Lake | The Black Lake (Harry Potter), Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26339296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: It's not Ron that Harry has to save from the bottom of the lake.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Severus Snape
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63
Collections: Anonymous





	Mix-up

**Author's Note:**

> This AU came to mind and I wanted to write it down. If you're a shipper, I guess this could also be taken as pre-slash, but this was written as gen.

When Harry swam into the sunken ruin’s opening, he spotted four floating bodies. Bound by their ankles to keep them from floating up, their hair splayed around them as merpeople kept guard. Harry propelled himself through the water, he couldn’t see any of the other tributes in the area. As he swam closer, the bodies’ identities became clearer.

On one end was a small girl with platinum hair, she resembled Fleur quite a lot. On her left was Cho Chang, face lax and robes drifting around her. Next to her was Hermione Granger, even submerged in the water her hair still managed to appear frizzy and voluminous. And, surprisingly enough, on the other end was Severus Snape - looking small and gaunt when he was unconscious and stripped away of his heavier outer cloak, but strangely peaceful.

This must be what the voice meant in the egg - discovering what they had taken. Harry surveyed the scene - clearly, the little girl was Fleur’s sister, thus making her Fleur’s person to save. That left the other three.

Harry was unsure who he should go for. Clearly he wasn’t meant to rescue Snape, he wasn’t sure why he was here at all. What significance did he hold to any of the tributes? Harry’s closest friend here was Hermione, but he also cared for Cho too. Harry sank down to the tether tying Hermione’s ankles together, but when he tried to untie her, a merperson shoved a pointed trident into his view. Harry jumped back, steadying himself with his hands.

“But she’s my friend!” Harry’s voice came out warbled underwater.

“She is not yours to save!” Answered the rasping voice of a trident-wielding merperson.

As Harry glided back, he looked to Cho again. She had to be Harry’s person if it weren’t Hermione. Suddenly, Cedric Diggory swam past Harry and blasted a hex at Cho’s tether, successfully severing it. Cedric wrapped an arm around her waist and looked back at Harry. He tapped his wand on the watch face on his wrist - he was wasting time debilitating down here. 

Cedric swam up, and Viktor Krum took his place. Half-transfigured into a shark, a pseudo-animagus form, he bit Hermione’s rope and dragged her away. The merpeople watched Krum retreat, just _letting_ him take away Harry’s best friend. Harry didn’t know the other girl, so that left-

Harry looped back around and swam down to the bottom of the rope that bound Snape’s ankles. He heard some of the surrounding merpeople titter with laughter as he finally figured out who he was meant to save. Harry stopped himself from thinking about the semantics of why Snape was chosen to be Harry’s person to save, he’s sure Snape would be just as curious to know the reason when they both got back to the surface. He’d wasted enough time down here already, the hour had to be nearly up.

Harry eyed his expensive-looking dragon-hide boots as he loosened the rope, he could only imagine Snape’s anger when he would inevitably find out that they’ve been waterlogged and ruined. The rope finally came free, sinking to the lakebed below. Harry kicked up and wrapped his left arm around Snape’s ribcage, trying to ignore how dangerously thin the professor felt. 

Before he swam away, Harry looked around the area once more for a sign of Fleur. He wasn’t going to leave her little sister down here to perish. Through the kelp in the distance, Harry saw a flash of blonde hair and a silver bathing suit. Fleur emerged and swam as fast as she could to her sister. She looked up at Harry before refocusing on her task of freeing the bound girl.

With one arm wrapped around Snape’s middle, Harry used his free arm and his legs to propel himself to the surface. More light crept into his vision as the pressure eased. When they broke the surface of the water, just as the effects of the Gillyweed wore off, Harry heard Snape gasp and wake up, as though being above the water broke a spell. He looked up at the stands of cheering albeit confused people, wearing his own confused and weary expression. He struggled weakly against Harry’s grip, but Harry tightened his hold around his torso. Harry was sure that whatever spell keeping the victims asleep certainly made them fatigued, and as much as Harry disliked Snape, he didn’t want him slipping back under the water and drowning while he was half-conscious.

“Potter? What’s going on?” Snape asked, seeing that it was Harry who kept them afloat. His voice was hoarse, like he’d just woken up after a day of screaming. Harry rolled onto his back, arms hooked underneath Snape’s as he pulled them through the water.

“The second task. Four people were taken into the Black Lake and the champions had to rescue a person each. It must be your lucky day, sir, because we got landed with each other,” Harry explained, trying to keep his voice steady although his lungs were burning.

“Let go of me, Potter, I can swim for myself,” Snape said, trying to pry Harry’s arm away from him with his bony hands. 

“Stop that. We’re almost back to the platform,” Harry said. Once they reached the stands, Harry guided Snape’s arms to the ladder to hoist himself up. Harry followed shortly, the cold was starting to ache in his bones. 

Across the lake, Fleur and her sister emerged, signalling the end of the task. Harry barely noticed Hermione throwing a towel around his shoulders, it didn’t do much to block out the cold. She hesitantly passed a towel to Snape’s shivering form and looked curiously between the two of them, before turning on her heel and leaving them on the low-level platform. 

“If this is Albus’s idea of a joke, I’ll kill him,” Snape growled, pulling the towel around himself. His hair hung damply around his face, water droplets falling from the end of his dark locks and landing on the floor. Even out of the water, Harry couldn’t help but notice how small Snape was without his billowing cloak, no wonder he wore it all the time. He was physically less intimidating.

“That’s the only explanation I can think of,” Harry said sheepishly. “No offense, sir, but we don’t seem to get along well enough for either of us to be considering special by the other.”

To Harry’s surprise, Snape let out a single, bitter laugh. “Ever the understater, you are.” Snape took a step away from the edge of the platform as Fleur and her sister came out of the water. “Go find your peers, Mr. Potter. I’m sure they’re dying to tell you how funny it was to watch you drag your bitter Potions Master up from the bottom of the lake. Meanwhile, I’ll find the Headmaster and demand some answers.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at Snape’s moment of self-awareness, but when he turned to reply to the man, he was gone.


End file.
